


the wheels of fate

by larryhaylik



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Illnesses, M/M, post-season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 05:57:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6788707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larryhaylik/pseuds/larryhaylik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The great wheels of fate never stop spinning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the wheels of fate

**Author's Note:**

> Read the tags. Don't read on if you're feeling down, I don't think this will improve the situation, as it came from my own little down.

"Hey," Derek said and made Stiles look up at him. "It's gonna be okay. Whatever the doctor says, we're going to make it through together."

Stiles smiled sadly at him. "Yeah."

The door opened and the doctor - the same one that had run the tests yesterday and showed them to this room - walked in. Her face showed nothing, which only served to make Derek that more antsy. 

"Hello," doctor Dean said as if they hadn't met ten minutes ago when Stiles and Derek arrived. The look on their faces must've betrayed something because doctor Dean just sighed and flipped her papers open. "Right down to the business then. Mr. Stilinski, your results are, I'm sad to say, not perfectly clear. We've found some unusual alternations, but we're not sure yet what exactly they are. We will have to run a few more tests to make certain that you have indeed inherited your mother's illness. If you don't mind, we could set the date now, so we know as soon as possible."

-

"Can't you see it? I'm not even capable of voicing my needs! I'm not capable of talking like I used to! I'm losing- _everything_." Stiles hiccuped as emotion overthrew his seemingly calm facade. 

Derek sighed, a long, sad sound, drawn from the bottom of his heart. He reached out to touch Stiles' hand and draw him closer. Stiles curled up beneath his chin like a kitten seeking love. Or safety. Hiding place. _Shelter_.

"Shh, it's okay," Derek whispered into Stiles' hair. "It's alright."

"No, it's not," Stiles defied quietly, slapping him feebly on the chest. "We can't go on like this anymore. We just can't."

"Yes, we can. And we will, as long as it's necessary."

They stood like that, embracing each other, for a few minutes, relishing in each other's warmth, enjoying the proximity.

"You should leave me."

Derek stopped breathing for a second, his brain processing what Stiles had just said.

"I'm not leaving you."

"Why not? You could still find someone new. Someone who's not bound to go crazy any minute. Someone who you can go running with. Someone who could make you happy."

"I'm happy with you." The pain seeped through Derek's voice like cold seeps through clothes in winter. Stiles let out a weak laugh.

"I know you are. But I also know what's coming. You forget that I've been in your position before. I don't want you to feel the way I felt back then. Nobody deserves that."

"Listen to me, okay, just listen. I am not leaving you, not if you go crazy and start slapping me, not if you forget me, not if the world goes down around us. I love you."

Stiles squeezed Derek's hand and pressed impossibly close.

"I love you too."

-

A scared scream woke Derek up. He shot up on his bed, still tangled in covers and profoundly disoriented. There was a light on on Stiles' bedside table and Stiles himself was standing next to the bed, naked but holding a blanket to him like a lifeline, staring at Derek with fear in his eyes.

"Stiles?" Derek asked catiously.

"What's happening? What are you doing?" Stiles' voice was unusually high, with panicked undertones that made hairs on Derek's nape stand.

"I just woke up. You screamed. Are you okay?"

"I-" Stiles' forehead scrunched up. "I don't know."

"Come back here." Derek patted the spot beside him. The panic that coursed through him scorched like the sun. He did his best to keep it inside. The doctor warned him that this might happen, the confusion. He tried to prepare himself. Obviously, it wasn't enough.

"Y- yeah." Stiles stepped closer and crawled towards Derek, settling down with his head on Derek's chest. Derek ran his fingers along Stiles' back until Stiles breathing evened out. Only then did Derek release the breath he didn't know he was holding.

-

"It's getting worse." Derek said into the phone, keeping his eyes on Stiles. He had been sitting at the table for the past two hours, staring at the same spot on the crossword. When Derek had come up to him to check whether everything was alright, Stiles looked up, smiled widely and looked back down.

"It's possible he reached another stadium of the illness," doctor Dean's voice wafted to him through the phone. "Are you sure you don't want to get him hospitalized?"

"I-" Derek's voice hitched. Every previous time, his answer was a flat out, brisk no. But today, something felt different. Helpless. Derek hated helplessness. "I'm not sure. I'm still hoping... Can I let you know tomorrow?"

"Of course. I understand." Doctor Dean's tone was laced with something that sounded suspiciously like pity. "At any time."

"Thank you," Derek said after a moment of silence.

-

"We, that have gathered here, have done so in order to pay our last farewells to Stiles Stilinski, a person of great..." Derek tuned the words out. They did nothing to soothe the raw feeling of having been sliced open and left exposed. 

So that was what a broken soul felt like. 

When Stiles and he had gotten together, Derek was sure they would live happily ever after. A silly thought, of course, but Derek couldn't help but believe that after all the bad things that had happened in their lives, the great wheels of fate would leave them alone. 

They didn't.


End file.
